Hong Kong: Move over China, India could well become the go-to destination for Hong Kong based manufacturing companies looking to uproot their facilities and relocate to cheaper destinations. Provided India plays its cards right. The huge Make-in-India push by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has attracted the attention of Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), which has – over the last few months – conducted extensive research of advantages India provides for low cost manufacturing versus other Asian economies such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and mainland China. And India seems to be a very favourbale destination in almost all parameters.

A delegation comprising research professionals with HKTDC is expected to once again visit some cities in India next month – these are destinations which the council thinks have huge potential for low cost manufacturing. Will India extend support and sops for encouraging Hong Kong’s growing interest?

“We believe India has a huge potential for this. For one, India’s wages are way below China’s and many other South East Asian countries. Two, India has a huge buyers’ market – Vietnam has only about 90 million in domestic market size compared to about 1.3 billion people in India. Not many companies in Hong Kong are aware of India’s potential in low value added products’ manufacturing…..we have done the research and shared it with them,” says Dickson Ho, Principal Economist with HKTDC.